You might have already heard of Minecraft Realms. It’s our official way for you to play on a persistent Minecraft world with friends. That means that you and a bunch of buddies can play build, create, and explore in the same world, regardless of how many of you are available.

It’s my favourite way to play Minecraft - playing together with your favourite crafters feels really special, whether you’re building something awesome or gearing up to take down the Ender Dragon.

Realms currently gives you three separate worlds to play on per account - you can generate them from a random seed, upload your own map, or choose one of our funky presets to play on. Even better, your progress is regularly backed up, so you can load a previous save if the whole place burns down, gets flooded, or overrun by enthusiastic creepers. You can even see exactly who has been online and when thanks to our handy activity monitor. It’s super simple to setup and loads of fun!

All Realms accounts also get a special slot which is dedicated to our selection of minigames. There are lots of them already included in each subscription, and you get to switch between them as you please. Read more about them here.

Realms costs from €8/£6.40/$10.40 a month to play (it’s a bit cheaper if you subscribe for longer), and up to 10 crafters can play on any one Realm at a time. It’s currently only available for the PC version of Minecraft.

To celebrate the obvious coolness of Minecraft Realms we thought we’d give away 12,000 14 day trials this weekend. 500 will be available from within your Minecraft client each hour from 11 am UTC on Saturday until 11am on Sunday. To grab one, load up Minecraft and choose Minecraft Realms from the main menu. If you see a link offering you a free trial, click it and your trial will begin! There’s no catch whatsoever! Literally none!

Minecraft Realms is getting even more exciting! We’ve packed it to the brim with fresh mini-games, maps to spark an epic adventure, and intricate custom spawns.

Realms gives you and your friends a persistent Minecraft world. It doesn’t matter if the host is online or what time of day it is; Realms worlds are always available for building, adventuring, and crafting. You can start from a random seed, or choose one of our pre-installed maps. You can even switch between the two and save/restore your progress when convenient.

We thought it would be good to give you a rundown of the pre-made maps currently included in Realms. Thanks to all the fantastic community members for creating these masterpieces. You are all talented and generous and lovely.

Bloxorz is an homage to popular Flash game… erm… Bloxorz. It’s a puzzler that rewards forward planning and good brainwork. Check out some cool footage of the game in the video above but bear in mind that the level editor is not available in the Realms version. That said, all 33 levels from the original are, so don’t stress too much.

Color cube is a tactical minigame that’s all about claiming territory. Players paint the level their own color by running around one of nine available maps, and doing their best not to fall off the ever-changing landscape. There are even powerups to help spice up the gameplay. Play it with a bunch of friends for maximum fun.

Diamond Defender is another innovative minigame. This one tasks players with surviving a terrifying ten waves of creeper attacks while protecting your stash of precious diamonds. Not one for the faint of heart but a bundle of creeper-based mayhem.

Diversity 2 is a Complete the Monument-style minigame. That means that players need to find or earn specific blocks to “complete” the map. The extra cool thing about Diversity 2 is that those blocks are earned through completing a bunch of challenges in specific zones. You should definitely check this one out; Marc Watson - the adorable and much-loved guy from Minecraft support - lists this as one of his favourite maps of all time!

Knockback Madness is a chaotic mixture of player versus player combat and vertigo-inducing parkour. Players use their Minecraft combat skills to take out the other players using deadly weapons while avoiding their enemies’ advances. Competitive stuff for fans of intense combat!

Missile Wars is a conveniently descriptive title for this cracking minigame. Players launch TNT and Slime Block missiles at each other’s bases while trying to defend their own by defusing opponents’ missiles with skilled marksmanship. You can even ride your own warhead across the map! Awesome stuff.

Pizzaspleef is Seth Bling’s innovative take on the classic Minecraft mini-game, Spleef. The objective is to be the last players standing on a giant pizza. Players earn bonuses such as super speed or jump boosts by mining each of the toppings . It’s a deliciously chaotic quest for glory!

Raiders Refuge is an exciting survivial map in Realms. Start your game here and you’ll spawn in a majestic settlement sitting on a rugged coastline. It’s perfect for playing out pirate fantasies before venturing into the unknown.

Spellbound Caves is a Complete the Monument map by Vechs - one of the pioneers of the genre. It’s one part of his Super Hostile series which is notorious for it’s challenging nature. I’m sure you’ve got the skills required though - you look like a hardy crafter.

Winter Stronghold is our second survival map. Instead of beginning your adventure in a random spawn, players start in this prebuild stronghold complete with all its wintery charm. Gather supplies, plan your journey, then head into the wild.

That’s it for now! Hope you enjoyed this rundown. Visit our Realms site for more.

I just wanted to let you know that 1.7.10 will be released on Thursday and I hope you will enjoy the update. It’s mostly new features and fixes for Realms, but who knows what other things it may contain! Personally, I’m really excited about the world uploader. It let’s you bring local worlds to Realms so they can be enjoyed by your friends 24/7!

World uploader - upload your local world to Realms (finally!)

Command blocks! (finally!)

Player activity monitor - when and for how long a player has been online (see who plays when you sleep!)

Access to more server settings (yey!)

Improvements in Realms UI (also yey!)

Some bugfixes (why were they put in there in the first place?)

And many more… (we just don’t want to look lazy, that is why that sentence is in there)

Update 2014-06-10: A new pre-release (version 1.7.10-pre3) is now available. It contains some bugfixes.

Update 2014-06-04: A new pre-release (version 1.7.10-pre2) is now available. It contains some minor bugfixes for a crash related to being kicked from a server.

We just published a pre-release version of Minecraft 1.7.10 that contains updates for Realms. All Realms related modules were moved into a separate library.

How does this release affect you? If you are not playing on Realms, it does not change anything at all. The main advantage is that we don’t have to release new updates for Minecraft 1.7.x in the future, if we want to add new features to Realms.

Some of the new features in Realms are:

player activity monitor

access to more server settings

improvements in Realms UI

some bugfixes

To get snapshots, open your launcher and press the “New Profile” button. Call it “snapshots” and check the box saying “Enable experimental development snapshots” and save. To switch to the normal version, you can select it in the dropdown at the bottom left corner of the launcher. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (See the “new profile” dialog). Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds.

We’re proud to announce that Minecraft Realms for PC and Mac is now available worldwide!

Realms is the easiest way for you to host a Minecraft world online. You and your friends can work on an awesome creation, adventure into the depths, or play one of our featured mini-games with just a few clicks.

The servers are always available, and can be restored to an earlier point if something goes wrong. Realms is run by Mojang and simple to set up.

Realms is currently only available for the PC/Mac version of Minecraft, though we’re planning on releasing it on other formats in the future. For more information, check minecraft.net/realms

Specifically, we aim to open Minecraft Realms to all Nordic countries (Norway, Finland, Iceland and Denmark) starting some time next week.

We are still working on snapshots for 1.8, but before 1.8 is out we already know there will be a 1.7.6 version too. Minecraft 1.7.6 will add support for the new skin system (which currently is in the 1.8 snapshots) and name changing (only the support for changing names, actually being able to change names may need to wait a little more). Minecraft 1.7.6 will be out some time after GDC in March.

You’ve probably heard of Minecraft Realms by now. It’s a paid service that lets you quickly create an online Minecraft world for you and friends to play in together. It’s simple to set-up, easy to manage, and configured from within the Minecraft client.

Your world is always online, even if you aren’t logged in. You can invite up to 20 friends to your Realm, and 10 can play at once. The whole thing is hosted on our servers and can be configured from inside Minecraft. It’s very jolly.

Minecraft Realms is currently available in Sweden for PC Minecraft only. Anyone who attended this year’s Minecon can also access Realms by redeeming the Realms pre-paid giftcard that came in their giftbag.

Realms subscriptions currently come with seven pre-made maps, including Blocks vs Zombies by SethBling, Dash of Doom by Dragnoz, and Spellbound Caves by Vechs. You can load them up, or create a completely random world if you prefer. Your Realm gets saved at regular intervals, so you can restore an earlier version if something goes wrong, or if someone burns down a creation you’ve spent months on. On that note, it’s easy to add and remove friends from your approved list. :)

If you’re based in Sweden, or one of the lucky few with access to Realms, you can log into your Minecraft account to start, or top-up, a subscription. Your world is currently saved for at least three months after your subscription runs out, so don’t worry if you forget to top up in time.

We’re currently offering three different package for Realms users. 30 days access costs €10, 90 days costs €26, and 180 days costs €46.

A select group of players now have access to the Minecraft Realms limited alpha test. Minecraft Realms is a service designed to let players play on a server together with minimal setup, and will be available to the public later this year.

Will this change the way I play Minecraft?

How can I get into the Realms closed Alpha?

How much does it cost?
We’re not sure yet. It will be a subscription service. One subscription = one server. Only the host needs to pay. The host can invite (whitelist) friends to play on his/her server.

How many players can play together?
This is not confirmed yet. During the closed alpha we have set a limit of ten players to test out our systems.

What is Minecraft Pocket Realms?
It is the mobile version of our Realms service.

How much will Pocket Realms cost?
We’re not sure yet. It will be a subscription service. One subscription = one server. Only the host needs to pay. The host can invite (whitelist) friends to play on his/her server.

How do I buy a Pocket Realms subscription?
Realms subscriptions will be available via an in-app purchase within Minecraft - Pocket Edition. You’ll need to log in with your Mojang Account to use the service. If you don’t have an account you’ll be asked to create one.

This is all the info we have right now. We’ll keep you updated as things develop!